A tale of two envoys: Canada’s diplomatic footprint in the tumultuous Middle East

As the Israelis and the Palestinians lurch from one aborted cease-fire to the next and Canada’s politicians twist themselves in rhetorical knots trying to navigate the minefield of Middle East politics and its domestic implications, Canada’s very different diplomatic footprints on the ground in the region tell a story of their own.

As Canada’s envoy to Israel loudly articulates the Harper government’s position on the bloody conflict between Israel and Gaza, just over an hour away, her counterpart in the West Bank has been notably silent.

Canada’s ambassador to Israel, Vivian Bercovici, has taken to digital diplomacy to express the Harper government’s vehemently pro-Israel views on the crisis. But last week, the Times of Israel criticized Bercovici for her provocative tweets challenging Palestinian “activists” and blaming the escalation of the crisis solely on Hamas.

As Bercovici continues to tout the government’s views, Canada’s Representative to the Palestinian Authority, Katherine Verrier-Fréchette, who doesn’t have a Twitter account, has said nothing publicly about the recent escalation.

Two different jobs, two different approaches

Former Canadian ambassador to Israel David Berger says Bercovici and Verrier-Fréchette should take a different approach to their jobs because their roles are distinct from one another.

“I would note that Palestine is not a state and there’s a difference between an ambassador and a representative. So that may in part account for the latitude that the ambassador has in making statements. A representative may not have the same resources,” said Berger.

Canada has had an embassy in Israel since 1953 and a resident ambassador in the country since 1958, according to Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird’s office.

For the first three years of his ambassadorship in Tel Aviv, Berger served as Canada’s ambassador to Israel and representative to the Palestinian Authority. When the representative office of Canada to the Palestinian Authority officially opened in March 1999, Berger no longer oversaw those relations.

To Berger, Bercovici is only doing her job in speaking on behalf of the Harper government.

“An ambassador is not a politician … You’re a spokesperson for the government. You do not go out and make policy on your own. You do not engage in political discussions on your own. You are there reflecting the policy of your government and your minister,” said Berger, a former Liberal MP.

Former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations Paul Heinbecker agrees with Berger, adding that “there’s nothing neutral about being a diplomat.” But Heinbecker says that doesn’t make Bercovici’s bold statements, especially those on Twitter, constructive.

“What she’s doing now, tweeting the government line, and blaming the entire crisis entirely on Hamas and taking no account of the context of the 47 years that Israel has occupied the West Bank, taking no regard that Israel has annexed East Jerusalem, taking no account of the fact that against international law Israel has transferred 550,000 people into the West Bank and Jerusalem … If you don’t take those things into account, you can come up with a pretty one-sided, self-serving, conscience-easing narrative.”

Two distinct career paths

Beyond the gaping differences in diplomatic approaches, Bercovici and Verrier-Fréchette appear to have very little in common when it comes to their career paths. While Bercovici carried a public profile as a well-known lawyer and Israel supporter from Toronto, Verrier-Fréchette has the much-traveled curriculum vitae of a career diplomat, having joined what was then the Department of External Affairs in 1998.

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD), Verrier-Fréchette’s appointment as the representative to the Palestinian Authority was announced in February 2013. Prior to her current role, she was head of the political program at the Canadian embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, and deputy head of mission and head of the political program at the Canadian embassy in Tel Aviv. She has also served as the deputy director for Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria and senior policy advisor to the assistant deputy minister (geographic branch) at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (now known as DFATD). She also served as a desk officer for the Horn of Africa and head of the political and trade programs at the Canadian embassy in Ethiopia.

Verrier-Fréchette has also had extensive multilateral experience in disarmament and international human rights.

Bercovici, however, was the first non-diplomat the Harper government has appointed to Israel.

Prior to her appointment, Bercovici wrote columns for the Toronto Star, where she took a hard stance against Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA), and applauded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. For instance, in a Star column from January 2013, Bercovici had some tough words for Hamas and the PA.

“Hamas, the PA and just about every government in the Middle East make no secret of their collective ideological commitment to the total destruction of the state of Israel, which they regard as a blasphemous blight on the Arab and Muslim worlds,” she wrote. “So in the end, it really doesn’t matter to them who wins and leads in Israel. There is no willing negotiator on the Palestinian side.”

Bercovici has 24 years of experience as a lawyer, specializing in aboriginal affairs, regulatory matters and media issues. Her only past government experience appears to be a two-year stint as a senior policy adviser with the Ontario Ministry of Finance in the 1990s. She also has served on the boards of CBC/Radio-Canada and the Canadian Journalism Foundation.

The case of the career diplomat vs. the political appointment

Berger and Heinbecker disagree on the issue of political appointments. For Berger, who was politically appointed to Tel Aviv by Jean Chrétien, individuals from non-diplomatic backgrounds can contribute significantly to the Canadian foreign service. Heinbecker, a career diplomat who served as ambassador to Germany and permanent representative to the United Nations, disagrees.

“Generally speaking, political appointments have been failures at ambassadorial jobs.”

While Heinbecker was careful to avoid comparing Bercovici and Verrier-Fréchette’s performances, he said Verrier-Fréchette naturally brings a valuable skill set to the table that Bercovici simply doesn’t have as a non-diplomat.

“One’s (Verrier-Fréchette) a professional foreign service officer who brings the cumulative wisdom of the foreign service across time and geographic space. What she offers the government is judgment, insight and understanding,” said Heinbecker.

Canadian parliamentarians to meet with both envoys this week

A group of six parliamentarians met Bercovici and Verrier-Fréchette this week in Jerusalem. The parliamentarians travelling on the mission, which arrived in Israel on Tuesday and returns to Canada on Thursday, are Conservative MPs Randy Hoback, Ted Opitz and David Sweet, Liberals MPs Carolyn Bennett and John McCallum and Liberal Sen. Grant Mitchell. The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) invited them on the trip, which has been called a solidarity mission. The CIJA also invited the NDP but the party wasn’t able to round up any MPs to go, according to a Huffington Post report.